Water faucets having a single handle that controls both water volume and the proportions of hot and cold water passing through the faucet have attained great commercial acceptance. The popularity of such faucets has been due in large part to the ease of operation a single operating handle provides, as well as great reliablity that has been a feature of the design of many of such faucets.
A great deal of development work that recently has transpired in the single handle water faucet art has been directed to schemes yielding the above benefits coupled with the additional advantage of quiet operation. Quiet operation has been found to be desired by many of the consuming public and has been dictated by various building codes throughout the world.
While the development of water faucets yielding quiet operation has proven to be somewhat empirical, certain parameters for faucet valve design are known to be necessary for this advantage. For example, it has been found that a decrease in noise is obtained in a valve that cracks open over a wide area, as about the periphery of an arcuate valve member, as opposed to the arrangement where cracking open occurs over a smaller or pinpoint area such as between two circular water passages brought into registry. Another factor contributing to quiet faucet operation is the provision of an intermediate chamber in the faucet valve between the water input and discharge locations that initially is pressurized when the valve is turned from the "off" position but prior to the opening of the water discharge port. (Such a construction is shown in a single handle valve in U.S. Pat. No. 3,645,493, issued Feb. 29, 1972, and assigned to the assignee of this invention.)
An additional design consideration in single handle faucets is the desirability, and necessity in many plumbing code jurisdictions, of a provision against cross bleed between the hot and cold water input lines when the valve is in the "off" condition.
Prior art faucet valves in single handle configuration are known which incorporate the various desirable features and parameters discussed above. However, such valves tend to be relatively complicated in design in order to provide these various features and such complication and the attendant large number of parts lead to expense of manufacture and assembly. This complexity also renders the valves difficult to maintain and repair should such action become necessary. In fact, valve disassembly in many instances is beyond the capability of one untrained in this art negating home repairs by the faucet owner.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a valve for a single handle water faucet that is quiet in operation due to inclusion of features allowing cracking open of the valve over a relatively large area and initial pressurization of an intermediate valve chamber prior to water discharge, thereby isolating initial pressure line noise from valve discharge. Another object of the present invention is the provision of a single handle faucet valve that eliminates the possibility of cross bleeding between the hot and cold water inlet lines when the valve is in the "off" condition. A still further object of the present invention is to provide a valve having such features wherein the working valve parts are included in a subassembled valve cartridge that may be assembled and removed as a unit from the valve housing. A still further object of this invention is the provision of a valve having a relatively small number of working parts that easily may be manufactured and assembled and which will remain functional over a long faucet life despite the high incidence of utilization of which such valves often are subjected.